1940s Re­lived

More clas­sics and cos­tumes made Brooklands the ideal place to in­dulge in some 1940s car nostal­gia

Re­vival events are be­com­ing quite the in-thing, but it al­ways helps if the sur­round­ings match the pe­riod be­ing re-cre­ated. So when it comes to the 1940s, Brooklands in Sur­rey has to be one of the ideal venues, with its blend of early 20th cen­tury mo­tor rac­ing at­mos­phere and wartime avi­a­tion build­ings.

For the mu­seum’s an­nual The 1940s Re­lived event, a whole host of dif­fer­ent com­po­nents came to­gether to make this year busier than ever. As well as all the reg­u­lar at­trac­tions open as usual, there was a vin­tage mar­ket, dance mar­quee, live mu­sic and awards for the most stylish suit­ably-at­tired at­ten­dees. And, nat­u­rally, there were lots of his­toric ve­hi­cles in at­ten­dance too.

The idea of fea­tured themes – last year, it was com­mer­cials, the year be­fore that, the 1948 Lon­don Mo­tor Show – was dropped this year, in order to make ev­ery­body with an ap­pro­pri­ate ve­hi­cle feel even more wel­come. And it seemed to work, with Brooklands’ nooks and cran­nies filled with all man­ner of mil­i­tary and civil­ian ve­hi­cles from the 1940s and be­fore.

But it wasn’t all about the 1940s. While such ve­hi­cles took pride of place in the pad­dock and out­side the Club House, there was also room for 1950s and 1960s cars, no doubt for any­body too much into the era to see what the fu­ture looked like…